Quilted mat

Hi everyone,

First of all, a HUGE thank you to all of you who commented on my last post. Your advice about borders and sashing was extremely helpful. I've been a bit scared to carry on with my charm quilt because of all the sashing but hopefully I'm a bit more ready now to give it a go.

Over at Sew Delicious, there has been a quilted mat sew along. I haven't done mine at the same time, but I kept the link and decided to have a go this weekend. 

Here is my finished mat

I really, really struggled with the binding. I haven't yet done any before so this was going to be a learning curve for me, but I know I have to learn because I need to finish my quilts! I'm using my mat just sitting in front of my laptop so my arms rest on it. I might make another, just to practise the binding.  One of the problems I have, is although I have the most beautiful old Merritt sewing machine (and I love it), when you sew it's either fast or nothing! I now have a new sewing machine fund that I'm putting my £1 and £2 coins in and am slowly saving. 

Overall I'm quite pleased though. The patchwork was good and the quilting was nice and easy. 

See you soon 
Ally
xx

Charm Quilt

Hi,

Before I start, I just want to say a HUGE thank you to those of you who have answered my questions. As you know, I am a complete beginner and am more or less teaching myself, so I have lots and lots of questions.

On my last blog post, I asked why I need to measure borders and not just attach them and then cut to size. Thank you for all your replies, but I still don't get it. You say that it keeps the blocks square. How? Let's say the quilt is slightly bigger at the top than at the bottom. Do you have to physically make the quilt fit?

I'm going to move on and show you a charm quilt I've started. Be warned, this is photo heavy! I bought this gorgeous charm pack.

It's called Honey Honey by Moda. I found a pattern on the net and am on my way to making but stupidly, or wisely as I have to learn, the quilt is blocks of 4 charms together, with borders around. Seeing as I'm struggling with borders at the moment I guess it's do or die!

So I've made a start and sewn the charms into blocks of 4.

I haven't decided what colour to do the borders yet. I keep looking at them but can't decide. 
I'm quite excited that I now have Works in Progress (WIPs). Yay me!!!

That's it for today.

Ally
xx

Baby Quilt Update

Hi,

I haven't been able to update the blog for a little while. Blimmin work always gets in the way!

So here is an update on my baby quilt.

As you can see, I've put a white border all around the edge and am now putting a pink border around the edge. The back of the quilt will be made from the same material as the border.

Thank you to all of you who read my blog and take the time to comment. Thank you so much. It means a lot to me.

I have another question. I've watched lots of youtube tutorials on how to add borders to quilts. The majority say that you measure 3 times and then take the average. Why can't I cut longer and then trim to size? It would be so much easier! Does the same apply when I am adding borders to blocks?

I had my monthly meeting at the quilting group I go to. We had a talk by a lovely lady called Helen Howes. She was taught by Jennie Rayment and her quilts are fabulous. I like the way she doesn't stick to rules and applies her own spin on things. You can see more about Helen on her website here. The meetings are only held once a month but I really look forward to them.

I've been up to quite a bit of sewing and hopefully I'll be able to share some more with you soon.

Ally

Baby Quilt

Hi,

The weather is a bit cooler today but at least the sun is shining. 

Today I thought I'd show you an update on my baby quilt. I have now sewn all the pieces together.

This is my first move away from just squares and I'm really pleased with it.  Now for another first. I am going to try and make a border. I'm having real trouble trying to cut lengths of fabric when my cutting mat is only 11" x 17". Oh well. I'm still hanging on in there!

Ally

Operation destruction

Hi,

So do you remember this?

Yes it's the black and white quilt again. I had some lovely advice and realised that just a few of the blocks were in the wrong place. So Sunday, I set about moving those blocks. The more I looked at the quilt though, the more I was unhappy with it. Then I realised that I just couldn't cope with the way some of the blocks were so toally out of line....so operation destruction began! Yep, I've decided to take the WHOLE THING apart. I am going to cut all the blocks down and either remake the quilt, or, use the blocks to start experimenting with some blocks. 

Ally

Baby Quilt

Hi,

So how are you all? The sun is actually shining. Doesn't it make everything feel much better?

I've started a baby quilt. I was rifling through my small stash and managed to put together enough pinky fabrics.

I saw this layout on another blog. I can't remember the name of the person whose blog it was. I daren't go looking and mention the name or put a photo in case I get my knuckles rapped again. Was mortified by that and will not be doing again. So here are all my squares and rectangles laid out. I'll show a picture in my next post of how it's coming along. 

I still haven't altered the black and white quilt, but I will, I promise. I also had a lovely reply to my last post about my 'new' vintage sewing machine and how it wouldn't reverse. Well I'm really pleased to say that is sorted now so thank you very much!

Lastly, I think (hmmmm still not sure yet as I don't think I'm experienced enough) I'm going to join the modern blocks QAL.

I am about to button on the right hand side of my blog if you would like to join in too. Please let me know if you are. I'd love to have a 'buddy' to do it with and maybe gee me along!

So that's it for now.

Ally

xx

Vintage sewing machine

Hi,

The weather here is finally turning spring like. It feels like the winter has lasted forever. Just so nice to have sunshine!

I've been moaning a lot about my little sewing sewing machine which doesn't sew very well. Well you'll never guess what ... I was talking about it at work and one of the other teachers at school said she had a machine in her loft that a friend gave to her. She was emigrating to /australia and it was too heavy to take. My friend at school has had it in her loft ever since.

So here it is!Heavy wasn't the word. My goodness it weighed a tonne! I opened the case and although it smells a bit musty it looked beautiful (can a sewing machine be beautiful?). It has the original manual too. When I opened the little bit on the side, inside was loads of little bits.

There are threads in there too. 
So I threaded it up and put a piece of material underneath and it sews like a dream! I am soooooo happy! There are a couple of issues though and one is quite major. Firstly, there is no reverse, so I can't secure the stitching. I really don't know what to do about that. Secondly, after about 15 minutes, the machine starts stitching all by itself! I have to turn it off and wait  or so minutes and then just do a few short bursts. Something is obviously overheating. I need to find someone who can fix it. Just don't know who!

On to the black and white quilt. I've had some lovely advice, especially from Helen. I'm going to unpick some bits and see if I can fix it. 

I've also started a baby quilt. Pics of that to follow. 

Have a great day.

Ally
xx